THE WAC TEAM EXPERIENCE
FOR PARENTS
THREE WAYS TO SHOW UP
Start here
"You'll never swim alone."
A motto ever so gently borrowed from the famous Liverpool Football Club. It means that nobody at this club, swimmer or parent, should be a stranger.
Here's exactly what we ask of you, the parents, and it fits on one page.
What every family does
One shift at every meet your swimmer swims in. Two shifts at the meets WAC hosts.
That 's the whole policy. You can work out what your family owes for the entire year, in September, in about fifteen seconds. It's required, not as a gesture of goodwill, because a meet does not run without these shifts.
The Three Team Experience Roles
Click to learn more
Meet Volunteers
Every Family, required
A swim meet does not happen without parents. Not runs more smoothly. Does not happen. Every race needs timers behind every lane, someone getting eight-year-olds to the right block at the right moment, and officials on deck.
The rule: one shift at every meet your swimmer swims in. Two at the meets WAC hosts.
Why two at our own meets?
Because one is not enough, and we would rather say so than run short and guilt people on the day. A hosted meet needs roughly a hundred filled slots across officials, timers, bullpen, concessions, hospitality, setup and ribbons.
Never been to a swim meet? Time at your first one.
Standing behind a lane with a watch is the fastest way to learn what is happening in the water, you get the best seat in the building, and a Level Liaison will stand there with you the first time. That is literally their job.
Level G families are exempt.
Your first season is for finding your feet. But you are very welcome to come and shadow a timer, and we would love you to. It is the fastest cure for the four-hours-of-confusion feeling at a first meet.
If you genuinely cannot make a shift work.
Life happens: travel, shift work, a younger child at home with nobody to watch them. Tell the Member-at-Large before the meet and we will sort it out, and there is a per-shift buy-out for families who would rather square it that way. We would much rather have you on deck, but we would far rather you told us than quietly disappeared.
What happened to the $300 fee.
It is gone. The old per-season non-completion charge, $300 or $100 for partial completion, was a penalty attached to a commitment nobody could compute, and it could be levied twice a year. We retired it.
Where to sign up.
In Captyn, alongside meet entries. Shifts open when the meet does, so please claim one early rather than waiting to be asked on the day.
Jobs for Meet Voluneers
At any meet, home or away:
- Timer. Stand behind a lane with a stopwatch. Start on the horn, stop on the touch. Two or three timers per lane, so nobody's number has to be perfect. Five minutes of instruction, on the day.
- Runner. Collect the timer slips between heats and walk them to the desk. No training needed.
- Head timer. Run a backup watch, start everyone's watches, and swap in when a timer needs a break. Ten minutes of instruction.
- Bullpen. Get the little ones lined up in the right heat and the right lane at the right time. Loud, chaotic, weirdly fun, and the most valuable job at an 8-and-under meet.
At meets WAC hosts, add:
- Concessions. Sell food. This brings real money into the club.
- Hospitality. Feed the officials and coaches, who are working a ten-hour day.
- Setup and breakdown. Before the first session, after the last.
- Ribbons. Sort, label, stuff folders. A sit-down job, and good company.
-
No experience is needed for any of these.
Level Liaisons
Fourteen People, Optional
Two per practice level, A through G. A one-session term, so you choose again every three months and nobody is signing up for forever.
- Welcome people. A new family decides whether they belong here within about six weeks, and almost all of it comes down to whether a real person said their name.
- Connect people. Kids quit because their friend quit. Friendships do not form on their own when everyone arrives four minutes before practice and leaves after warmdown.
- Notice people. When a kid has a great swim, make sure somebody says so out loud. And notice the family that has gone quiet.
- Translate what is happening. Turn club news into what this means for us this week.
What we ask: two to four hours a month, a personal note to each new family at your level, and getting your level together somewhere informal a couple of times a session, right after practice so nobody makes a second trip.
What you get: a real budget you do not have to ask permission to spend, templates so you never start from a blank page, a named person who answers you fast, and you hear things first.
Not required: swim knowledge, free time, event-planning skill, or years at this club. What matters is that you show up consistently and you are warm to strangers. That is basically the whole job.
Event Volunteers
Raise a Hand, Optional
WAC runs four whole-team events a year: First Splash in September, the Holiday Party in December, Awards Night in May, and a summer day out in July. Each one needs about a dozen people doing one specific job each.
- Welcome table. Name tags, greet every arrival, make sure no new family walks in without someone saying their name. About two hours.
- Food lead. Receive the food, set out the buffet, keep it stocked, pack it down. About three hours.
- Grill crew. Burgers, dogs, veggie burgers. Two or three people, about two hours.
- Activity lead. Run one station: tie-dye, yard games, whatever the event needs. About two hours.
- Setup crew. Tables, chairs, signage. Arrive an hour early.
- Cleanup crew. The one nobody volunteers for. We will thank you loudly.
- Photographer. Candid shots for the newsletter. Your phone is fine.
Twice a year, the bubble. Putting the pool bubble up in the fall and taking it down in the spring are two scheduled, all-hands calls, not a committee anyone has to join. The dates go on the calendar the moment we know them, and we will ask once, loudly, for each.
If you have been here a while
The old list of eight General Club Support committees is gone. Here is where each piece went, so nobody wonders whether their old job still exists.
- Liaisons became the Level Liaison role, a bigger job with a budget and real support behind it.
- Social Committee was absorbed into Level Liaisons and Event Volunteers.
- Locker Room is retired. The club is moving to a paid arrangement.
- Bubble Maintenance is retired as a committee. It is now two scheduled calls, fall and spring.
- Fundraising is now one or two people, appointed by the President.
- USA Swimming Officials moved under Meet Volunteers, where it belongs.
- Volunteer Tracking is retired. Sign-ups and tracking now live in Captyn.
- Social Media is now handled by the Vice President.
TBH: a committee nobody staffs is worse than no committee. We'd rather name the handful of things the club genuinely needs, ask specific people for them, and be honest that the rest was a list on a website.
FAQs
My swimmer is in two levels' worth of practices. Do I owe double?
No. The shift count follows meets, not practices. One shift per meet your swimmer swims in, whatever level they are in.
Both parents want to help. Does that count as two shifts?
Yes. Two people, two shifts, whether that is at one meet or spread across two.
My swimmer only swims half the meets on the calendar.
Then you owe half the shifts. The rule scales with how often your swimmer actually races.
What if I do not know how to do any of it?
Sign up to time. Five minutes of instruction on the day and you are set, and you will be standing next to someone who has done it fifty times.
Where do I sign up?
In Captyn, alongside meet entries. Shifts open when the meet does.
What happened to the raffle?
Still on. It is our only mandatory fundraiser, and it now lives on the Fundraising page rather than being tangled up with volunteering.
Officiating
Becoming an official is a great way to learn the sport, contribute to the team, and help swimmers improve. Most meets require 13 officials per session to run smoothly. Since most meets have 4 sessions over 2 days, that's 52 officiating slots per meet! There are different types of positions, so you're sure to find something that appeals to you:
- Wet Deck Officials - Stroke and Turn judges (can advance to chief judge, starter and referee)
You receive training and are required to pass a test and shadow an experienced official until you are ready to do it on your own. What do you have to lose? Please contact Mike Burrows (757) 645-7640 or Harold Baker (757-229-8662) if you think you're interested or have any questions.
